Misconceptions and Feng Shui

The below information is an extract taken from our March 2003 newsletter. If you would like to join our monthly Feng Shui newsletter please click here.

As far as I am aware there are over 600 books written about Feng Shui some good some bad? Many contradict each other, some with lovely pictures, some many pages and many many mistakes. Feng Shui has been used for over 5000 years and the biggest problem with anything this old is fact, who is right and who is wrong? Michael and myself have been in hundreds of debates with other Practitioners and even Masters talking whether one school is correct or not. We have come to the conclusion that we should all “agree to disagree”. By the way even Michael and I can disagree on some points. Take away all the scientific calculations and complexity in Feng Shui it is actually quite straight forward (tongue in cheek), try and look at your home, office, Childs bedroom, your bedroom, garden or even a piece of furniture with an open mind.

If you were building a pond in your garden would you want the shape to be rounded or very sharp corners? The same applies for furniture or even art; if it is aggressive looking with lots of points and sharp edges do you think this would be good? The shape of your home, is it better to have a square or rectangle shape or an uneven home with extensions jutting out all over the place? Do you get my point? Forget the books for now, here you go I have just thought of a great idea, try this test this weekend, sometimes you cannot see the wood for the trees and you can overlook things. To make it even better invite a friend with a similar interest over so you can get an outside view of your home.

1: Wake up nice and early, get your partner to make you a nice breakfast (we can dream a little) and sit down and read the papers relax and take things easy and then go for a little walk or do some exercise.

2: 11am stop what you are doing and go and find a quite area of the home and try and meditate for around 30 minutes, if you have never mediated before or have trouble doing it, just play some relaxing music and try and unwind, I know all this is easier said than done but please try.

3: 11.30am. Come out of your quiet area hopefully with a relaxed and open mind, now try and imagine this is not your home (hard I know) start with upstairs (pen and paper making notes) and walk round each room spending 5-10 minutes in each room, do this with all rooms. Look carefully at your bedroom does it have a mirror facing your bed? Are there any sharp corners pointing towards your bed when you sleep? Mirrors overlooking your bed? The design of wallpaper or art on the walls could it be looked at as aggressive? Do the colours suit the room? Is there too much clutter? Are you making full use of the windows? Do they have large dark thick curtains, which block much light?

4: Now go outside and do the same, have a look at the shape of your house, is it a regular shape? Is the paintwork in good repair? Can you walk up your front door without tripping over plant pots or skateboards? Is it inviting? Do you have a pair of Fu Dogs by the front door? Are there any lampposts outside? Large trees close to front? Pathway to door too straight? Dead leaves (Sha Ch’i) around the edges and in borders? Have you fixed the fence panel that blew down in the winter? Cleared the rubbish from behind the shed or garage? The most important thing to remember is if you have trouble getting to your front door imagine the trouble Ch’i has, so make sure the pathway is clear and even lit at night

The arrows represent poison arrows (Sha Ch’i) place a Ba Gua mirror to deflect poison arrows. Sorry about messy drawing, it looks awful but hopefully you will get the idea.

5: I have not gone not into great detail of what you should look for as you will spend ages, try and look from a different angle at every part of your home. Now sit down with pen and paper and try and analyse your home, if you do have a friend with you try and take criticism as long as it is constructive, see their view and get them to explain why they think that your cannon pointing towards your front door is bad or why the barbed wire round your front door may put some people off from visiting you. Most important of all is do not fall out if they get personal or tell you your painting on the wall is not nice, remember everyone sees things in different ways, what is nice to me may be ugly to you.

I did this exercise last weekend as we had the pleasure of having a very good friend Sallie Tsui Sien visiting us for a few days, Sallie is a well known and highly trained Practitioner from Spain, more exciting details below. Anyway Sallie spent some time looking at our house and although could not fault the technical side of Xuan Kong or eight mansions, but she did point out some parts of the home and garden that we had overlooked, now maybe I shouldn’t admit to not being perfect but it is a good example of how it is better to detach yourself sometimes and either look at something from a different angle or better still have someone else look at it, two sayings come to mind “sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees” and “two heads are better than one”

The most popular topic and often worrying one for many people is your front door/window and back door or windows are in a straight line with nothing in between. This is always written as very bad as all the energy flows straight through your home and you are doomed with an eternal life of disasters, in other words when you come in through your front door you can see the rear door or window in a straight line. This situation is very common with homes in the UK, so is it bad or not?

(Having two doors or windows is not as bad as many books will tell you as long as you keep one closed as with Fig 2.)

Yes & no, long long ago a man called Guo Pu (276 – 324 AD) wrote in his burial book ” Ch’i rides with the wind and is dispersed; it is stopped at the boundary of water” this is a very famous saying about Feng Shui (wind and water) and every good Practitioner should know this. So what has this got to do with doors I hear you say? When you open a door or window in your home you let in Ch’i (energy), now if it is a very windy day the energy that comes in is Sha Ch’i (bad energy), fast moving energy is not good. Sheng Ch’i (good energy) is slow moving wind putting it simply. The reason so many books have written that it is bad to have front and rear door in line is because of a lack of understanding of Feng Shui. So even on a still day you can create a vacuum of air if the front and rear doors or windows are open at the same time and they are in a straight line.

It is only bad when both front and rear doors/windows are open at the same time and you get a strong gust of wind blowing straight through your home, this dispels all your good Sheng Ch’i and straight out the back or front door. So if you live in a house where the doors or windows meet in a straight line do not worry, just remember to make sure when one is opened the other is closed. If you can place a piece of furniture or screen in between this is better but for some houses it is impossible especially for the 1930’s type homes in the UK, if yours is one of these do not worry. Another good cure I like is hanging a faceted crystal sphere in between the doors/window as these are very good for slowing down energy, a little gimmicky and I know some Masters would disagree but I do love using them.

Whilst it is closed, a window is exactly the same as a brick wall, a window is a solid matter that only lets light Ch’i come through which of course is very good, like water we could not exist without light.

Now please try and understand, don’t think that because it is windy outside this is bad news, I actually love opening all my windows on a windy day as I get the feeling of blowing away the cobwebs and bringing fresh Ch’i/air into the home, it does cause a slight disturbance for a while but the Sheng Ch’i soon returns with a new lease of life. I would not however let a very strong gust of wind blow through the house and make it feel like a wind tunnel, as this is not good.

A road outside your property, is this bad?

Again many books written on this subject and many misconceptions, so here I am to put things straight. In our modern world I would say most of us live in a built up area surrounded by other homes, factories, trees and the sound of commercial noise, I know someone reading this will be sitting in their 7 bedroom country home in the middle of nowhere and a perfect Feng Shui setting, if this is you it will still be worth reading only if you pass this information onto someone less fortunate.

Roads in Feng Shui analysis are considered water, so when you look out of your window next, do not see them as roads try and picture them, as a river running by your home, looks much better. The way to look at a road/river and see if it is a problem for you is to imagine if you live in a house where you are at the end of a road/river and that river broke its bank would it cause a problem for you? (The faster the flow of traffic the worse the problem) If you were at the end of a road this would be a problem as it comes straight at your home. However, if that road had a roundabout or circular area at the end just before your home this would not be as bad, why? Because the circular area would absorb some of the negative energy coming towards your home. Roundabouts are actually very good to have outside your home, that is a very sweeping comment but on the whole they are not bad at all. If you do live in a house where the road points straight at you plant some 4-5 feet conifers or similar to absorb the Sha Ch’i, do not let them grow much higher than 5 feet though as it is better to have an open area at the front of your property. Another good way of looking at it is if a car was travelling down the road and it lost its brakes would the car be aimed straight at your home? If so place some obstacles in the way like a row of small trees or a fence to slow the car (Sha Ch’i) down before it hits your home.

X = Bad. If you do live in these locations it is best to build a low fence or grow a hedge of about 5 feet. You should also place a Ba Gua mirror to deflect the negative energy.

When you make any changes with Feng Shui placement try and step away from what you are looking at and look at it from a different angle.

“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and doesn’t stop until you get into the office!”

Did you know you have a secondary wealth area?

Feng Shui Masters in the old days and even today hold many secrets and the below information is very closely held and normally only passed onto their students on their death bed, hundreds of thousands of pounds are normally passed over to gain these secrets before hand.

In period 7 which we are in at the moment we have a secondary wealth area that can be activated with water real or virtual. Send me £500.00 and I will tell you where it is, only kidding. This form of water placement is all part of the He Tu number combinations (1-6. 2-7, 3-8, 4-9,) which I will cover in a separate newsletter, in fact there are many ways to activate wealth with water including 5 Ghosts carry money, Castle gate method, Ling Shen, Later Heaven Gua, Pa Sha, Wang Chen and Zhou Shen to name a few, these are all very powerful ways of activating wealth and some of them I will cover at a later stage.

Up until January 2004 when we enter a new 20-year period you can activate the south-west of your land with a water feature outside. It must be outside and not inside so sorry to anyone who is unable to place water outside although you can use virtual water in the way of a road outside the south-west or lower ground or an open area like a field (lower ground than the property) or playing ground. So if you have a patio table set here move it elsewhere and see if that creates enough open area to activate it. Activating with water can bring unexpected wealth. The reason you do not place water inside your home is because it will affect your flying stars especially this year as we have a 3 wood and water feeds wood, if however you know your flying star or you have had a consultation and the water star is supported by water then you can use it inside. Water in the SW for a business will bring in new customers; the same applies though it must be outside.

If you plan to install a pond or fountain in the SW please bear in mind that it is only good until January 2004 and will have to be moved again. Also remember the flow of water must be clean flowing and face towards the home or office. If it has a central spout where the water comes out of this is OK, if it has a spout that flows out the side this is where you need to make sure the flow points towards the building, I hope that makes sense. The fountain can be made of any material so you do not have to spend a fortune; I have seen some inexpensive outdoors fountains in garden centres.

You can also place (inside building) a red Shou Shan stone three legged Toad here as this will not only reinforce this wealth area but the red colour will weaken the bad visiting 3 wood. Please do not use a metal one and remember to move him next year. We will keep you updated at the end of year for 2004 secondary wealth area.

If you have been consulted by a Practitioner she or he may not advise this because they will know the other stars in this area and how it will affect the relationship so please follow their advice obviously they also may not know this little known secret.

“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.”

Preparing for 2004

What!!! I can here you say we have only just entered 2003 and you are talking about next year? The main reason is I have already received many e-mails asking about 2004 and what is happening. In January we enter a new 20 year period, at the moment we are in period 7 making the 7 star a good star to activate, after January 2004 7 goes back to its normal inauspicious nature and 8 becomes even more powerful.

So what does all this mean I hear you say, well at the moment not much because although there is much hype about it there is little you can do at the moment other than wait until the end of this year and we will as always inform you in our newsletter of how to make the best of the year.

2004 is a very important event and the energy for many houses will change for good and bad but there is nothing to worry about, as you will be prepared as you always are through our newsletter.

The moral of this story is “prepare to be prepared for 2004” and don’t get taken in with the hype, well not until I give you all the hype at the end of year.

Chinese animals Predictions for 2003 uploaded on site

As you know every year I make predictions for your animal sign and these have now been uploaded on our site, please follow this link to view them and see what is in store for you: chineseanimalpredictions.htm

Feng Shui Store expand to Europe

I am so pleased to announce that with immediate effect we have now spread our wings and flown into sunny Spain. Sallie Tsui Sien has joined our company and will be representing us in Spain and also Southern France and Italy for the time being. Sallie is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Spanish and comes from a family of Feng Shui Practitioners. Sallie lives in Barcelona and travels many miles on consultations.

Sallie will be contributing towards the newsletter and also the resource on our site as her expertise in all aspects of Feng Shui is extremely high and classically trained with some famous Masters in Hong Kong and also Lillian Too and to top it all she is the nicest person you would ever want to meet, we feel so honoured that Sallie has joined us and it took us so long to find the right person to represent us.

Sallie will be putting some details on our site soon in English and Spanish but in the meantime if you wish to welcome her or enquire about her services in Spain, Southern France & Italy please e-mail her on sallie@fengshuiweb.co.uk

“The age of your children is a key factor in how quickly you are served in a restaurant. We once had a waiter who said, ‘Could I get you your bill?’ and we answered, ‘How about the menu first?'”

You will find many articles on learning traditional and authentic Feng Shui. They teach you how to use cures and enhancers that nature provides us with, mainly the five elements. As many of you long time subscribers will notice some of the articles are taken from our monthly newsletter. I hope you enjoy them, we will be adding to the resource on a regular basis.

If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter click here or if you require further details on a Feng Shui consultation please click here.

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